Protesters holding Danish and Greenlandic flags take part in a demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark, January 17, 2026.
Niklas Pollier | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Danish pension operator Academia Carpension has announced it will withdraw from U.S. bonds, citing financial concerns as Denmark battles with President Donald Trump over his threat to take over Greenland.
Anders Schelde, head of investments at Akademi Carpension, said the decision was prompted by what was seen as “poor (US) government finances” amid the US debt crisis. But it also comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Denmark following President Trump’s recent threat to impose tariffs on European countries unless they sell Denmark’s Arctic territory, Greenland, to the United States.
“While this is not directly related to the ongoing rift between the (United States) and Europe, that certainly did not make it difficult to make the decision,” Schjelde said in a statement to CNBC.
A spokesperson for Academic Carpension confirmed to CNBC that the fund currently has about $100 million in positions in U.S. Treasuries. The academic-focused fund plans to end its holdings by the end of this month.
Scheldt primarily cited the ballooning debt bill the United States faces after decades of government overspending. Last year, the United States recorded a budget shortfall of $1.78 trillion, a decrease of just over 2% from fiscal 2024, due to President Trump’s widespread and expensive tariffs.
Moody’s Ratings downgraded the U.S. sovereign credit rating from “Aaa” to “Aa1” in May, citing high borrowing costs associated with budget deficits and debt rollovers at high interest rates.
Given the U.S. fiscal situation, “we thought we needed to try to find another way to manage liquidity and risk,” Schelde said. “Now we’ve found a way to do that and we’re doing it.”
Denmark has become increasingly hostile to the United States as President Trump intensifies his demands for the United States to take control of Greenland. President Trump said over the weekend that if the U.S. does not take control of Greenland, he would impose tariffs on several European countries starting February 1, with the potential for those tariffs to rise to 25% on June 1.
European leaders are reportedly considering counter-tariffs and other punitive economic measures as a result. Some investors are worried that European countries will dump their U.S. assets in response to President Trump’s new tariffs.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Monday that “there will be no pressure” and that Greenland “will stand firm on dialogue, respect and international law.”
Yields on U.S. and international government bonds rose sharply on Tuesday, a sign that investors feel geopolitical turmoil is on the rise. In a trade defined by the “Sell America” trade, the US dollar and stocks fell while gold hit a new all-time high.
Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, told CNBC on Tuesday that sovereign wealth funds could start dumping their investments in the U.S. if they no longer view the U.S. as a stable trading partner.
“Behind trade, deficits and trade wars, there are capital wars and capital wars,” Dalio told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Given the conflict, we cannot ignore the possibility of a capital war. In other words, the propensity to buy things like U.S. government bonds may not be the same.”
Reuters was first to report the Danish pension fund’s withdrawal from the Ministry of Finance.
